Now Commenting On:

Injured Rays trio making progress in rehabs

Injured Rays trio making progress in rehabs

ST. PETERSBURG -- Jose Lobaton's return to the team from the disabled list leaves nine Rays on the DL.

Among them are Evan Longoria (left hamsring), Desmond Jennings (left knee) and Kyle Farnsworth (right elbow). Each of the three worked out prior to Monday afternoon's contest against the White Sox.

Rays manager Joe Maddon was asked about the progress of each.

"Longo and D.J. swung the bats well," Maddon said. "You saw Longo take his ground balls. You can still see where he's a little farther out than Desmond. Desmond in the outfield, the drills I saw from a distance, [he] moved easily, running the arcs with [head athletic trainer] Ronnie [Porterfield]. The good long strides, he wasn't guarding against his stride at all. Ronnie felt really good about his overall effort today. D.J. is getting much closer to being able to go out and rehab."

Maddon said that running the bases and sliding will be the next tests for Jennings. After that, Jennings can move on to a rehab assignment. Maddon said that Jennings did not need to play in a lot of games before returning.

"It's just going to be building him up," Maddon said. "He's not going to go out and play nine innings. It's a build-up process kind of thing. Probably start him out at about five [innings], then maybe seven then nine, one of those things where you're going to have to give him a day off. You might be looking at a week there."

As for Farnsworth, Maddon watched last year's closer play catch then watched him throw 25 pitches off the mound.

"The thing I was really paying attention to were two things," Maddon said. "Number one, the repetition of his delivery, and he was not guarding in the finish. That he was repeating his delivery well and he was not guarding at the end, two really good factors to see when you're talking about an elbow situation."